Martin Harris

Martin Harris
Visit http://www.march70.com
for details of infrastructure, software and
office fit-out projects I have managed
Senior IT Project Manager
Mobile
Email
Address
Website
LinkedIn
+44 (0)78 525 789 33
[email protected]
15 Castle Street, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, CM23 3TG
http://www.march70.com
http://tiny.cc/662t0w
Introduction
I am a Senior IT Project Manager, PRINCE2 qualified, with 9 years experience in the City of London and 2 years in the gaming industry,
specialising in IT infrastructure projects, projects ranging from simple deployments to complex projects, like data centre relocations. I am
self-sufficient, able to manage multiple projects simultaneously and have worked in both, relaxed and strictly project governed
environments – I’m happy to work in either. I am experienced working with stakeholders (the good and the bad) and I am experienced at
reporting and presenting to board level management. I have personnel management experience so I can lead, mentor and motivate
people. I am very good at driving projects through to completion and meeting budget and timescale targets. I get things done.
I have just finished a 15 month contract for a financial services company in the City of London, moving their data centre and upgrading
their server estate and I’m looking for a new contract to start immediately.
This CV represents just a small snapshot of the work I have done.
For a more complete picture of my experience, please visit http://www.march70.com
Employment History
2013-2014
CMC Markets
Project Manager
contract
Data centre migration and server estate refresh.
2011-2013
Ladbrokes
Project Manager
contract
Delivery of infrastructure & software projects, including
preparation for Grand Nationals 2012 & 2013.
2003-2011
CMC Markets
Project Manager
perm
Delivery of infrastructure, software, business change and
office build / relocation projects for 8 years.
2001-2003
CMC Markets
IT Support Manager
perm
24x7 support of clients, internal staff and the server estate.
2000-2001
Merrill Lynch HSBC
Project Manager
contract
Software deployment for their Wealth Mgt business.
1998-2000
Merchants Group (Ireland)
IT Support Manager
perm
24x7 support of 150 call centre agents and server estate.
1995-1998
Merchants Group (UK)
IT Support Engineer
perm
Desktop support of internal users.
1993-1995
Webbs Country Foods
IT Support Engineer
perm
Desktop support of internal users.
Key Achievements
Three projects I am particularly proud of…
Data Centre Migration and Technology Refresh @ CMC Markets
(This is the project I have just finished) 12 months to relocate a data centre and upgrade the server, networking and storage estate at the
same time. We decommissioned 637 servers and devices, spent £5.9m on new hardware and delivered almost 1,000 new servers for
DEV, UAT, NFR and PROD environments, all on schedule and budget, by December 2014.
Capacity Planning for the Grand National 2012 and 2013 @ Ladbrokes
I had to ensure Ladbrokes’ IT infrastructure would cope with the predicted online betting volumes for both Grand Nationals. I helped
design the customer journey, analysed capacity limits, identified weaknesses and upgraded infrastructure to raise capacity ceilings.
Expenditure on new hardware and software development was in excess of £1m annually. In 2012, Ladbrokes processed a record 1.1m
bets and in 2013 Ladbrokes made £10m profit on the day. Based on my experience, I’ve written four books entitled “Managing IT
Systems” for the Grand National, Super Bowl, Melbourne Cup and Kentucky Derby, which will be available for download in Feb 2015.
Infrastructure Upgrade Programme @ Ladbrokes
In 2011/12, I managed a programme of twenty-two projects to improve the performance and resilience of Ladbrokes’ production web and
application servers, load balancers, firewalls, performance testing tools and improving backup and database replication. I managed
budget spend, project scheduling, stakeholders and internal / external technical resources to get the programme delivered. The
programme had a budget of over £2m and all the individual project components were delivered to plan & budget, improving the
performance, resilience and/or effectiveness of each area.
Martin Harris | 078 525 789 33 | [email protected] | Page 1 of 3
Martin Harris
Senior IT Project Manager
Visit http://www.march70.com
for details of infrastructure, software and
office fit-out projects I have managed
Main Career History
2013-2014
Senior Project Manager, CMC Markets plc
In November 2013, I returned to CMC Markets on a 12 month contract, to project manage a data centre migration from Docklands to
Welwyn Garden City, with a deadline of December 2014.
Data Centre Migration and Server Estate Refresh
Twelve-month project to build a new data centre, replace the server estate and migrate services, with a hard end-date of 31st
Jan 2015 already set. I project managed all of the following. Decommissioning 637 of 1,500 unwanted servers. Fit-out of the
data centre with racks, power, cabling, new internet, MPLS, leased lines and telephone lines. Installation and config of 26
enclosures and 437 blade servers. Finally, I project managed the build and config of 963 servers (305 physical and 658 VMs)
and the the migration of live services to the new site. By early December 2014, services had been migrated, unwanted
hardware had been removed and the original data centre was handed back – all on schedule and to budget.
Other Projects …

Migration of price feeds for Deutsche Bank, UBS and Goldman Sachs, from BT Radianz & TNS to Market Prizm.

Relocation of sales office space in Stockholm & Frankfurt

Relocation of the BCP site in Sydney

Decommissioning a data centre in Vienna.
2011-2013
Senior Project Manager, Ladbrokes plc
I joined Ladbrokes’ Technical Service & Design department, as a contractor in September 2011. Besides “Grand National Planning” and
the “Infrastructure Upgrade Programme” described on page 1, these were some of the other important projects I delivered.
App Migration to Vodafone’s Data Centre
Ladbrokes contracted Vodafone to host their data centres, so every service run from a Ladbrokes data centre had to be
relocated. Each service was analysed to understand its connectivity to other components, firewall rules were amended, and
new servers were provisioned and configured. Each service was migrated and thoroughly tested before sign-off.
VPN Migrations
As another part of the ‘Move to Vodafone Programme’, I managed the migration of 53 VPN connections to Vodafone’s data
centre, saving Ladbrokes £600,000 in process, because they could decommission an Internet circuit saving the renewal
rd
budget. Working with Vodafone and 3 parties, I managed technical resources for the network design work, scheduled change
windows and managed the change control processes. All 53 VPNs were migrated within just 3 months.
Grand National Planning in 2012 and 2013 (See Key Achievements on Page 1).
Planning the infrastructure upgrades for the Grand National was a 3 - 4 month process. The project required careful attention to
detail in areas other than just IT, planning resources, budget, time and people. It sometimes required a forthright approach to
get people on the ‘same page’ as my timescales. Both years were viewed as the most successful and trouble-free online Grand
Nationals the company had ever experienced. Planning them was an experience I really enjoyed.
Software Development of a new app for 3 Contact Centres
I managed a year-long development to replace a 10-year-old app the Contact Centres in London, Gibraltar and KL used for
processing telephone bets. Starting life as a ‘vanilla’ off-the-shelf package, I managed the software development (including
more than 150 change requests from a variety of stakeholders), an off-shore team in India for testing and UAT teams for
approval. After 12 months work, all the defects had been fixed and the user base was migrated from original app.
Other Projects…

Integrating new services to allow refreshing test databases to be completed in 30 minutes instead of 5-10 days.

Upgrade of Production and Test Informix databases to improve server utilisation and balancing between Prod & Test.

Reconfiguration of storage infrastructure for Production and Test databases.

Ensuring continuity of service when Sky Bet relocated their data centre.

Decommissioning of uncontrolled outbound price feeds and migration of 3rd parties to just one production feed,
allowing Ladbrokes to control who they were giving access to their data feed.
2003-2011
Martin Harris | 078 525 789 33 | [email protected] | Page 2 of 3
Martin Harris
Visit http://www.march70.com
for details of infrastructure, software and
office fit-out projects I have managed
Senior IT Project Manager
Project Manager, CMC Markets plc
In 2003, I became CMC Markets’ first IT Project Manager. These are some of the main projects I delivered.
Migration of CMC’s Phone System
CMC moved to a new HQ in 2010. I managed the migration of the company’s Avaya phone system, from one to two data
centres to improve its resilience. When employees relocated to the new office, the migration of every single extension, agent
login and fax machine had been thoroughly planned and tested. There was zero downtime when the hardware was moved.
Deployment of a Worldwide MPLS network
I managed the deployment of a new worldwide MPLS network to CMC’s eighteen offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and North
America. Verizon were the main supplier and I was responsible for liaising and scheduling the work with Verizon, the local
telecoms company and the office being upgraded. All the offices went online on schedule, network traffic was faster, more
resilient and CMC saved money by having one integrated network, instead of 18 separate arrangements.
Construction of a New Data Centre
I managed the construction and fit-out of a new data centre for CMC’s first office in London, managing all 3rd parties, budgets
and schedules for the physical construction and the installation of the aircon, fire suppression, electrics, UPS and batteries,
generator, copper and fibre network cabling and working with Telcos for the installation of new WAN and telephone lines.
Office Fit-outs and Staff Relocations
I managed the construction, IT fit-out and staff relocation of sixteen offices for CMC over a 6-year period. For detailed
descriptions of each project, please visit http://march70.com and click the “office relocation” link in the menu.
Software Integrations / Deployments
I managed the following software integration and deployment projects:

Software development to apply changes to front & back-end systems to adhere with regulatory changes in Japan.

Integration of a real-time hedging system for the Dealing dept.

Integration of an Australian subsidiary's web front-end, with CMC's back office systems.

Co-location of back-office applications between two data centres in London.

Deployment of new tax software for the Finance dept.

Deployment of a new mobile trading platform for Japanese clients.

Deployment of device control software to all offices, to deny access to unauthorised storage devices.

Deployment of web filtering software to all offices, to prevent access to unauthorised websites.

Deployment of Algorithmics OpVar for calculating operational risk.
Education
2007
Prince 2 Practitioner
Learning Tree, London
1993
M.Sc. Information Technology
Warwick University
1989-1992
B.Sc. Accounting & Computing
De Montfort University (Leicester)
1987-1989
3 ‘A’ Levels
Tresham College (Kettering, Northamptonshire)
1982-1987
8 ‘O’ Levels
Montagu School (Kettering, Northamptonshire)
Tom Faulkner
Head of IT Production
[email protected]
Gareth Lawrence
Trading Application Support Manager
[email protected]
Darren Sherlock
Lead Project Manager
[email protected]
Bob Collins
Infrastructure Consultant
[email protected]
References
Martin Harris | 078 525 789 33 | [email protected] | Page 3 of 3
my immediate manager
my immediate manager